How exactly do you do calendar?

[Lecka]

I am wondering how people "do calendar."  

 

I am looking for basic exposure and understanding.  

 

Right now I have gotten a nice blank calendar sheet from a craft store, it has days of the week labelled, but no numbers.  

 

Here is what I have seen:  start with no numbers filled in past the current date.  In the morning, start writing in the number and talk about "today" and count up the days up to that day while pointing at the boxes.  Say the month and day of the week.  This progresses to giving the child a little box-shaped piece of paper with tape on the back and the date written on it.  The child comes to place the paper on the right box -- so you can show them where to put it and see if they are getting it.  Then -- when they are ready, have the child write the number on their own.  

 

Right now my child is at the point where he can put a paper onto the correct box -- he knows it will need to go in the first blank space.  

 

I would like to work on "what day was yesterday" and "what day will be tomorrow."  I would also like to work on writing a daily activity into the calendar square for that day.

 

These are not going to be easy for him, so I will be going slow with these.  

 

But then ------ if I go about it this way, I don't know if it fits well with counting down to a special day like a birthday or holiday.  

 

I could put these days on this calendar -- just write them in the right square even if the square has no number.  

 

Or -- I can make a separate "count down to the special day" paper to go along with calendar, but not have it be on the same physical calendar.  

 

I like the physical-count-down-to-special-events ideas like having a lot of marbles and taking one marble out each day to count down.  

 

So anyway -- I am curious how people do this.

 

I am also curious if there is an out-of-the-box program I might use.  I have the hardest time and overthink things a lot -- I do best with out-of-the-box things sometimes.  

 

Thanks!!!!!!

 

Edit:  What I am really wondering ----- if you are writing in numbers as you go, do you also count down to special days on that same calendar?  Is it confusing?  Do you add it after you have done just the most basic calendar for a while?  

 

I am really just wondering if I should write Halloween onto the calendar and count the days until Halloween, or if it is better to wait, and if I decide to wait, is there a way to know it is time to add that?  

 

If I think of doing it for all 3 kids, I would definitely do this.  If I think of targeting one child, I do worry about possibly confusing him.  Just not sure what to do.  

[happypamama]

My 5yo adds a velcro number to the calendar every day, and he swaps out the velcro strips for day, and weather, month, and season if need be. I also have a spot for special days but haven't made the cards for that yet.

 

He is good at keeping track of things in his head. Like, his birthday is coming up, and every morning he tells me how many days left. For things like Christmas, we always make a big paper chain and remove the links.

[mmasc]

We use and love the entire calendar system from Confessions of a Homeschooler blog. It's free and put together nicely. We have a big wall calendar where we put the Velcro number on each day. I also use the print outs from her where your little one can trace numbers onto a calendar or for older ones to fill in the calendar themselves. My DC trace the name of the day and we orally go over what today is, tomorrow, and yesterday. To answer about counting down special events, in our house we usually just put that specific day on the main calendar. For example, today we would have our wall calendar with numbers stuck on Oct 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 31. It could also be on the DC personal calendar. Sometimes my DS5 fills in much more than I'd want on our wall calendar. :)

HTH!

[Lecka]

Thanks :)

 

I have a desk calendar that I use, and that my older son looks at with me.  I think I can count down with it, with my daughter.

 

I think for my younger son I will do the basics only and then use a paper chain or something like a paper chain.  If we do a paper chain my daughter could help make it, and count out the rings at the beginning, which would be good for her.  

 

It is nice to know what other people are doing :)

 

I just looked at Confessions of a Homeschooler, the way she does today/tomorrow/yesterday would be good for us, I think.  I like her whole system, too.  

[barnwife]

I printed a calendar from a blog (ironic adventures, maybe???). I say "today is Monday, October 6. Yesterday was Sunday. Tomorrow is Tuesday." I often sing the days of the week song. I write the number on their calendars (both DS4 and DD2 have one). We count up to the number.

If there is a special day coming up, we count the days left until that day (which I mark with a special symbol of some kind). 

Then I repeat the "today is...yesterday was...tomorrow is..." in Spanish, along with the days of the weeks song in Spanish.

Then the kiddos choose a sticker to put on that day. Which covers up the number, yes, but it totally keeps them begging for calendar time. 

[Btervet]

I didn't want anything too confusing and complicated or something that took up a lot of space, so we just use a regular 12 month calendar. We sing the months of the year and days of the week songs. Then find today. He puts a circle on the current day, and an X on the previous days circle. (That's something he came up with, and really likes). Then I have him tell me the full date, eg "Monday, October 6th". We add in stickers, or write words down, for important holidays/events coming up.  Some days I ask questions like, what day of the week is tomorrow? What date is next Thursday? What month is after this month? Etc.

[VeritasMama]

We also use the Confessions of a Homeschooler calendar notebook.

 

Homeschool Creations also has some nice free printables to make a "Morning Board."

 

http://homeschoolcreations.com/CalendarMorningBoard.html

[Southern Ivy]

So, if I can butt in - at what age do you all begin your calendar time? I was thinking of doing a very simple and modified calendar time with my daughter this coming summer, but she'll be a young 3. 

[VeritasMama]

At 3 we just do the date on a large calendar. I'll point to the day say "today is Monday, October 6." If there is a special day coming up I might say "only 3 days until Halloween," etc. And then we'll sing a days of the week song, and do some seasonal songs. We also talk about what the weather is in general terms (sunny, cloudy, raining, etc).

[Lecka]

My son is almost 6 but he has a developmental delay.

 

He was in pre-school with ages 3-5 for the past 2 years, they had two rooms/groups they split into for "circle time" and he stayed with the younger age group.  They had a very simple calendar.  They would not expect kids to answer questions --  they did more "everyone say October" I think -- but they were exposed and practiced counting and they did do weather.  They would do it and then do "wheels on the bus" and that kind of thing.  Kids would be at their own levels to some extent -- some getting more out of it than others.  But some of the little kids were definitely picking it up, too.  They would be ready for more when they went into the older age group of pre-school.

 

Something he liked a lot that they did at the same time -- they had a magnetic board with magnets of a laminated paper with the kids names and an animal with their first letter sound.  Each kid would go up and move their name over to the "present" side.  Kids who didn't know their name yet could look at their animal.  My son LOVED doing that.  He loved "wheels on the bus" (once he had been there a little while).  I don't think he picked up a lot about the calendar, but he did pick up that the paper with the boxes is called a calendar, and that there are numbers on it, and I think it helped him with his counting.  So I think it was worthwhile even if he did not pick up as much as could be hoped -- he is still farther along than if he had not had that exposure. 

 

 

[Southern Ivy]

At 3 we just do the date on a large calendar. I'll point to the day say "today is Monday, October 6." If there is a special day coming up I might say "only 3 days until Halloween," etc. And then we'll sing a days of the week song, and do some seasonal songs. We also talk about what the weather is in general terms (sunny, cloudy, raining, etc).

Ok, that's about what I was considering doing. Glad I'm on the right track.  :thumbup1:

[Lecka]

There is a lot to do with Fall leaves for Fall at this time of year :) Very fun :) 

[MamaAmy]

I started calendar with my five-year-old at two, off and on, but it really wasn't until four years of age that she started really understanding the concept of weeks within the month.

 

I use a magnetic dry erase board. When she was younger, I would add the number of the day (in dry erase marker) and then we'd count up to which day it was today, and then she'd place the today magnet. Now that she's older, I introduce the month, and then I say that "Today is the 19th" and ask her to place the "today" magnet (that I made) on the 19th. Together, we count from 1 to 19, and then she places the "today" magnet. Then we do days of the week song, and I ask which day of the week it is. She sings until she finds the day of the week. Then I give my two-year the the "tomorrow" magnet, and I show him where to place it, and I ask my five-year what day tomorrow will be; we repeat for the "yesterday" magnet.

 

Then, I have some magnets I made from clip art of the activities we regularly have going on in our lives: ballet, church, play dates, grandparents, camping, etc. Sometimes I put the magnet up and ask how many days until ballet class, or sometimes I give my five-year the church magnet, for example, and ask her to place it on the next Sunday.

 

We also have a weather magnet and a seasons chart to reinforce those during calendar time.

 

It sounds like you already have great ideas from above, but I really like our little magnet board, and I thought I'd share. :) We've used it for three years now, and I have no plans to go to a more traditional pocket calendar. It has worked out very well for us.

[Mommy_of_4]

I just bought a kids magnetic calendar at the store and we just go over the calendar every morning for a few minutes. Our calendar time goes: what day is it? What was yesterday? What is tomorrow? What is the month? What was last month? What is the next month? Then we sing the days of the week and months of the yr. Thats it. It takes less than 5 min every day.

[Renai]

I like this take on doing the calendar: http://www.prekinders.com/calendar-in-pre-k/

[jnaj]

We have a large magnetic calendar, BUT I want to get a regular paper calendar (maybe a large one, maybe regular size, not sure) and go that route instead. The magnetic one is fun, don't get me wrong, but I think it's unnecessary. We go over the days of the week, months of the year, and what day is today, yesterday, and tomorrow. We only do they days of the week and months daily because my girls LOVE singing the song. I don't think that's necessary either! We also mark special events and talk about how many days in this month, etc etc.

[Alexigail]

We have this calendar set:

 

http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/dr-seuss-calendar-bulletin-board-set/p/701770/

 

It's all set up on a bulletin board.

[PeterPan]

Hey Lecks, someone with a SN dc was telling me she spent YEARS doing calendar time every day.  I printed out all the months and days onto tagboard and have them in a pocket chart so we can point to them as we sing (such as he sings, chants) the songs.  We made some picture cards to go with the season, so we review the season and characteristics of the season.  We have slots for the yesterday/today/tomorrow.  I made weather cards (sunshine, clouds, snow, rain, etc.) and day labels so he can mark the weather for the day.

 

That doesn't really help us with plan for the day and plan for the week, iykwim.  We made more picture cards for plan for the day.  I need to set up a 7 day week calendar and print cards for that.  http://www.setbc.org/pictureset/  Someone recommended this to me.  I just haven't gotten it done.  

 

So it's sort of like you need three calendars, oops.  (daily plan, weather/date/season log, and week plan) I put my stuff into pocket charts I got in the dollar section of target, because well the price was right.  There's a fancy one you can buy for $50 from Lakeshore Learning.  I want to make my week plan on something bigger, something magnetic.  Just haven't gotten it done.  I had a big magnetic board but it had an ugly grid.  I turned it into a flannel graph board.  My other boards are more like 17X20 and I love 'em but not sure I love them for that.  I think maybe bigger.  Story of my life, lol.